As we resume our Sunday specialized analyses after a 30-month absence, it’s time for a PSA: Nuance matters and opening weekends can be misleading, but initial results matter both for what they indicate as well as for their influence on future coverage. The excellent news is that both films, going slightly different directions to start (“TÁR” a traditional four-theater New York/Los Angeles start, “Triangle” 10 theaters in six cities) need no excuses....

Much has been made of the fact that the latest season of “Stranger Things” helped bring Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” back to the top of the charts as new fans discovered the song. But if the Duffer brothers hadn’t made the fateful decision to use her music, Taika Waititi would have found a way to incorporate it into his Marvel sequel. In a new interview with NME, Waititi was asked about the Netflix series’ use of Bush’s music, and he quickly interjected with his own blunt opinion on the saga....

On Thursday, the Television Critics Association, an organization made up of over 200 professional journalists covering TV, announced the nominees for their 38th Annual Awards honoring outstanding creators, series, and stars from the 2021-2022 TV season. The categories spotlight programming available on broadcast, cable and streaming outlets, that are from a wide array of genres. Leading the pack in terms of series is freshman ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary” with five nominations, including Program Of The Year, Outstanding New Program, Outstanding Achievement In Comedy, and a pair of Individual Achievement In Comedy nods for series creator, producer, writer, and star Quinta Brunson, and breakout Janelle James....

For eagle-eyed viewers, the first trailer for Zoe Lister-Jones’ “The Craft: Legacy” packed one hell of a callback to the original 1996 film: a shot of star Fairuza Balk in character as Nancy Downs, the embattled leader of the teen coven that Andrew Fleming’s cult classic followed. While Nancy’s fate in “The Craft” wasn’t at all a happy one — she’s remanded to a psychiatric ward, her powers stripped after a “binding” by Robin Tunney’s Sarah Bailey — Lister-Jones’ film offers a new future for Nancy that could set the stage for a continuing franchise....

Garfield seemed manic, possessed by the spirit of something even better than fame as he high-fived tourists and howled to the sky that “I just woke up in my soul and my heart!” The social media footage that made its way onto “Entertainment Tonight” would show the recent Oscar nominee barking at pedestrians with evangelical zeal while a cop handcuffed him against the windows of a head shop. “Are you feeling me, baby!...

Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve, who adapted the novel by Frank Herbert; and screenwriter Jane Campion and author Thomas Savage for “The Power of the Dog” (Netflix and Back Bay Books)....

In “The Runner,” an illiterate 11-year-old orphan (Niroumand), living alone in an abandoned tanker in the Iranian port city of Abadan, survives by shining shoes, selling water, and diving for deposit bottles, while being bullied by both adults and competing older kids. But he finds solace by dreaming about departing cargo ships and airplanes and by running — seemingly to nowhere. The movie has echoes of Vittorio De Sica’s “Shoeshine” and “The Bicycle Thief,” along with Luis Buñuel’s “Los Olvidados” and Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” in combining a childhood coming-of-age story with neorealist elements....

If one looks at the Ryan Murphy/Netflix collaborations in total, you’d be safe saying the pair haven’t crafted a match made in heaven (massive viewing numbers for “Dahmer” notwithstanding). Which is a shame, as “The Watcher” is probably the best series Murphy’s worked on for the streaming giant. What makes “The Watcher” soar is Murphy going back to what worked for him with the first “American Horror Story”: a haunted house film with a cadre of characters you simultaneously liked yet were irritated by....

Bell plays Anna Whitaker, a woman who’s endured the tragic loss of her daughter and the destruction of her marriage in one fell swoop. She spends her days drinking, a lot, and generally living in her bathrobe until a man named Neil (Tom Riley) and his precocious young daughter move in across the street. Anna is taken with Neil, but feels that his flight attendant girlfriend Lisa (Shelley Hennig) isn’t who she says she is....

“TIFF is about the films, and we’ve stayed true to that mission,” said Executive Director and Co-Head of TIFF Joana Vicente in an official statement. “We also are committed to an enhanced festival experience for film lovers. TIFF is renowned for conversations that dive deep into the history and context of the films that we curate, and the artistic processes of the talent who create those films. TIFF is an international platform for audiences, media, and the industry to discover great filmmakers, and explore new directions in cinema....

Mendes cut his teeth as a filmmaker at TIFF in 1999 with the world premiere of the iconic suburban satire “American Beauty,” which won the TIFF People’s Choice Award. That’s often a bellwether for the Best Picture Academy Award, which “American Beauty” went on to win in early 2000. “From his first appearance at TIFF with ‘American Beauty,’ director Sam Mendes brought his exacting and lyrical vision of cinema to Toronto,” said TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey along with the announcement....

Filmed in April and May of 2021, Stephen Daldry’s “Together” is naturally focused on the next step of our collective grieving process. While somehow even more obnoxious than any previous movies about the impact of COVID on miserable bourgeoisie types with large home gardens, this stagey two-hander can be cathartic for its white-hot rage at how we got here. If only the film were swept away by its agit-prop undercurrents, and not so focused on repairing the toxic relationship between two nattering people who probably should’ve “Phantom Thread”-ed each other to death when they had the chance....

Turns out Tom Holland can make a mean drink, especially after mastering mixing espresso martinis. The “Spider-Man: No Way Home” star went undercover in the London bar scene to prep for playing videogame adventurer Nathan Drake in “Uncharted.” “For me, one of my favorite things about what we do for a living is when you get the opportunity to learn a new skill for a reason, other than you just want to give it a go,” Holland said during SiriusXM’s Pop Culture Spotlight with Jessica Shaw, via People....

“​It is with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories, that the family of Gennaro Anthony ‘Tony’ Sirico wishes to inform you of his death on the morning of July 8, 2022,” he wrote. “The family is deeply grateful for the many expressions of love, prayer and condolences and requests that the public respect its privacy in this time of bereavement. Memorial donations may be made in his honor to Wounded Warriors, St....

Disney reduced the price to $5.99 last weekend and it bested “Old” (Universal/$5.99), which also dropped its price from $19.99. M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller placed #2 on two charts, #4 at Vudu (which charts by revenue; it was second to “Free Guy” there among non-PVOD titles). Two of the year’s most acclaimed international releases — Julia Ducournau’s Cannes winner “Titane” (Neon/$6.99) and Mia Hansen-Love’s “Bergman Island” (IFC/$6.99) — debuted this week but didn’t come close to the top 10 on any chart....

Perhaps the Chinese fiasco could lead to Disney replicating what Universal did with “Trolls World Tour” after its second weekend of home sales. It was an earnings call (not due for several weeks now though), but that is the one time the studio has released specific numbers on one of its releases ($95 million to that point). After a weekend where much of the media finally noticed that “Tenet” had its initial domestic gross success overstated because of confusion over how many days were covered, at least give Warner Bros....

“Panic” takes place in the small Texas town where every summer the graduating seniors compete in a series of winner-take-all challenges that could help them break free of their circumstances. But the rules are different this year — the money prize is larger, making the game even more dangerous as players will be faced with their deepest, darkest fears, forcing them to decide exactly what they’re willing to do just to win....

Products featured are independently selected by our editorial team and we may earn a commission from purchases made from our links. Leave it to Beyoncé Knowles-Carter to coordinate the release of “Black Is King” — a visual album produced across three continents and inspired by a $1.6 billion-grossing blockbuster — during a global pandemic. The multi-hyphenate star’s latest visual album is based on her soundtrack “The Lion King: The Gift,” which was released last year alongside the film....

In theory, that home access should be good news — but the ability to watch a movie at home is not necessarily the same thing as knowing where to find it. Finding the major-category contenders means tracking down their VOD release dates, or seeking them out on one of six major streaming platforms. Below is a list of where the 37 feature films nominated in all Oscar categories can be currently seen (or, in some cases, their future plans for viewing)....

HBO’s “The White Lotus” is back — which means that viewers, once again, have a murder on their hands. Season 2 opens with Daphne (Meghann Fahy) going for a swim on the last day of her holiday in Sicily, when she bumps into a dead body (or part of a body?) and swims, screaming, back to shore. Daphne isn’t the victim, but who in this gorgeous, secretive, calculating cast of characters is floating lifeless in the ocean by season’s end?...